At the Greenbelt Festival press conference pop star DANIEL BEDINGFIELD fielded questions from a bevy of journalists and broadcasters. Here's what he said.

Will any of this be featuring on your next album?

I think so. My album's going to be called 'Stop The Traffik'.

Will you be writing a theme song?

I haven't done it yet. It's the most awful idea, to have a theme song for trafficking. I don't know how a songwriter can do it without coming across like someone I won't mention, who loves trees!

But didn't Band Aid make an effective record?

There are people of certain races I'm very close to, who find some of the lyrics in that song insanely patronising! It depends on who you talk to. Was it a cheesy song? Absolutely! Did we love it? Yes, we did! Would it have worked if only one person had sung it? I don't think so. It's because everyone did it. It's just a laugh, and laughing is really good, especially with a song that cheesy. And all the people who wrote it will tell you it's a cheesy song.

I do not like the idea of trying to communicate something that doesn't flow with my artistic feeling at that time. If I was overwhelmed with emotion for a dying African child, and I desperately wanted to get funding for their orphanage, and that was the song that came out as I was holding them, I would have to sing it.

There are a lot of cheesy songs that I write. But they all happen because girls like cheesy songs, and I'm focused on that girl's heart at that moment. I'm imagining that I'm peering into the depths of their very soul, and I'm completely fixated on the flower that this woman's heart is. So it comes out as "If You're Not The One", and I don't even know what I'm doing. Then I'll listen to it afterwards and go 'Oh my gosh - cheese! This is N-Sync!' But then I'd want to go and record something that's incredibly not cheesy and I won't get permission [to release it] because I've written this cheesy music! I'm locked into a box. If I was an author, this would be a lot easier, because I'd write for that person and that person and so on. But I find it quite restricting being one artist because the scope of what I'm trying to do creatively is just too broad. It's going to be a struggle against reality for the rest of my life, I think.

I don't like singing covers, except [bursts into 'Easy Lover']. Some covers are cool. I do like "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers, but there's a huge difference in my delivery between a song that Tony wrote and one that I wrote. When I'm singing the song Tony wrote, I don't know the 100 thoughts behind the word 'the' or 'closed'. When I write my own songs, each word has so much depth in it. A phrase will be plucked directly out of my diary, out of my very soul, so it will resonate with every part of me. You all see me on stage; I'm shaking, I'm singing, projecting out.and when I haven't written a song, it's just hard for me to identify with it that much.

Could you get your showbiz pals to join you in supporting Stop The Traffik?

Everyone wants something from these people - absolutely everybody. I have the privilege of being their friend; I enjoy hanging out with them; we don't talk business. Now imagine that one day I bring up the subject - even if it's for a cause like landmines and Princess Diana's doing it - they'll get it in their heads that I want something from them. These people live a life of everyone continually asking them for stuff. So it's so hard for me to come up to them and ask for anything, because I value my friendships. Elton and David are so kind to me. Ian McKellen is so kind. It's [like] really scary to go up to them and ask. Paul McCartney did it; he signed the Stop The Traffik card and that's great. But asking him to do this concert - it's like, if I blow it, it's blown. And that's it, I'll never get to talk to him again, because he got this sense from me that I wanted something from him. And that's the reality of this ridiculous, outrageous industry we're in, and the climate that's created around fame. There's a massive amount of insecurity, and everyone's on tenterhooks. So it's very hard for me to ask people to join and sing with me. I want to ask them all, but I might lose half my friends - and they're all new friendships. I've only been selling albums for five years, and that's nothing in this business. You've got to have been going a lot longer to start asking favours.

Are you worried that your fans might not like you going in this direction?

If they would get angry with me for getting involved in social justice and ploughing my life into something, and for spending time helping people who are being raped and abused, then I'd probably be quite happy [to lose their support]. But then I don't think that anyone I've ever had in my concerts, or anyone who's ever talked to me and likes my music would ever have a negative reaction against me involving my life in this.

What is the possibility of anyone from the CCM scene being involved in these concerts you're planning?